Letters to the editor for Monday, May 6, 2013

The Orange County Legislature is considering a prohibition on fracking brine as a de-icer on county roads.

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Posted May. 6, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Posted May. 6, 2013 at 2:00 AM

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The Orange County Legislature is considering a prohibition on fracking brine as a de-icer on county roads.

This is a sensible precaution to protect our water, land and public health and safety. According to information provided by the gas industry to a congressional committee, this wastewater, produced by hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, contains known and suspected carcinogens and neurotoxins added to the water.

It also contains hazardous elements such as benzene and radioactivity picked up from the deep underground shale formations. Finally, the water is extremely briny, about five times saltier than seawater.

It's true the brine contains "only" 1-2 percent chemicals, but it takes about 4 million gallons of water for one fracking job. That's tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals per fracking, and some of these are dangerous at very low concentrations.

Fracking brine cannot be legally dumped untreated into streams, rivers or lakes, but if it is sprayed on roadways, it can wash into our waterways and onto adjacent lands. Other counties (Ulster and Westchester) have already banned fracking brine as a de-icer. We should insist that Orange County step up to protect its citizens and its natural resources.

Mary Makofske

Warwick

"The best way to preserve farmland is to keep it in the hands of farmers" is the closing statement in your April 18 editorial.

The best way to preserve farmers is to allow them to make a reasonable return on their investment. This is called a "profit." That word has been absent from too many farmers' vocabularies for too long.

If the U.S. government would enforce laws that are currently in place and not look the other way when food processors, conglomerates and handlers manipulate the commercial markets through price fixing, farmers would stand a better chance of getting a fair return on their investment.

When the milk prices paid to the farmers rise to a certain point, there seems to be a greater influx of imports from Oceania and elsewhere, lowering the prices on the Chicaco Mercantile Exchange. Food giants lower prices on the cheese, which ultimately lowers the prices received by dairy farmers.

The best way to preserve open land, with or without a housing boom, is to preserve farmers and allow them the opportunity to make a profit without tying both hands behind their backs.